Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him. Let him go up.’
2 Chronicles 36:23 ESV
Through the Bible: 2 Kings 24-25, 2 Chronicles 36
If you pick up a Christian Bible, the Old Testament ends with the prophet Malachi: “lest I come and strike the land with utter destruction” (Mal. 4:6). It closes with a warning, a curse.
But if you pick up a Hebrew Bible—the Tanakh—the story ends somewhere else entirely. The last book isn’t Malachi. It’s Chronicles. And the last chapter is 2 Chronicles 36, the account of Jerusalem’s fall and the decree of King Cyrus.
Here’s the surprise: the very last verse (2 Chron. 36:23) isn’t even a complete sentence in Hebrew. It ends mid-thought:
“Whoever among you of all His people—may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up”
It’s like the sentence itself leans forward. An unfinished ending.
The rabbis said that was deliberate. The Hebrew Scriptures end with an open invitation—let him go up. Go up to Jerusalem. Go up to rebuild. Go up to worship. It’s as though God Himself is beckoning His people forward, leaving the story unresolved so the faithful will step into it.
That does something to how you read the Old Testament. It means the story was never meant to be “finished” there. It’s waiting for completion.
And that’s exactly where the New Testament begins—Matthew chapter 1: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The unfinished sentence finds its resolution in the coming of Christ, the true Son of David, who would lead His people home for good.
I remember when my position at the company I worked for was deleted. For ten years I had poured my life into coordinating a summer camp ministry for students. I was actually at camp for my end-of-summer evaluation when my boss told me my job would not be there when I got home.
It felt like an ending, like a sentence cut off.
But in the same conversation my boss told me I would be getting another call from the managing editor for adult Sunday school curriculum and that they wanted me to serve on that team. It turned out to be every bit as fulfilling as my previous role, and it prepared me for the work I do now as a pastor and writer. What felt like a period was really a comma.
Sometimes God leaves the sentence unfinished in your life. The story doesn’t tie up neatly, the chapter feels unresolved. That doesn’t mean He’s done with you. It means He’s inviting you to “go up.” To take the next step of faith, even when you can’t see the end.
The final word is not “curse.” It’s invitation.
I promise you, your story is unfinished. If you woke up with air in your lungs this morning, God is not done with you. You may have experienced a job loss. A divorce. The death of a spouse. A prison sentence.
Let the last words of the Hebrew Bible be the first words of the next chapter of your life:
Go up…
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